Photos of the Day

July 24 - Porto Venere, Italy

Photo Latitude/Richard

Today's Photo of the Day is of Bob Tobin
of New York, with his lady friend Lisa, as seen dining in Porto
Venere, Italy, for the launch of Tom Perkins' Maltese Falcon.
Why is Tobin smiling? We think it's because he's a man who
already has his coffin - and has fond feelings for it. Wha? It's
because the coffin was made from the wood removed from his 1914
Fife-designed 94-ft Sumurun when the cockpit was rebuilt
during a recent seven-month refit. Tobin wasn't about to have
the historic wood thrown into a dumpster.

As you can see from the accompanying photograph,
Sumurun is a spectacular yacht. And Tobin must not be
a slouch of a sailor, for he and his boat corrected out first
in the '97 Rolex Transatlantic Race. Following victories at Antigua
Sailing Week and other events, she was the winner of the Classic
division in last year's Rolex Transatlantic Race - which was
a wicked one for even yachts such as the 144-ft Mari-Cha.

Tobin has owned the gorgeous Sumurun
for about 25 years. A chance meeting had brought them together.
He was at the Cannes Film Festival one year and decided he'd
rather stay on a yacht than in a hotel. If we heard him right,
that yacht was Sumurun, and he ended up buying her.

Sail the Caribbean in the Summer?

July 24 - Caribbean Sea

The girls seem to like to. Capt. Mark Denebeim
took these photos while he was on a 40-day and 40-night sailabout
between Anguilla and Dominica and back aboard an Oceanis 411.
He used to do his sailing, as did his father, on the cooler waters
of San Francisco Bay.

Photos Mark Denebeim

Riding Bikes in the Middle of the Atlantic

July 24 - Horta, Azores

Horta

"We're in Horta," report John
and Amanda Neal of the Planet Earth-based Hallberg-Rassy 46 Mahina
Tiare, "but we can't find Big O's painting on
the breakwater wall this time. Maybe it faded away or got painted
over. There are lots of cruisers around here, and lots more boats
since they added 120 berths. We had a very smooth and easy 14-day,
20-hour passage from Jost van Dyke in the British Virgins to
Flores in the Azores. We're now about to take our folding bikes
on the ferry over to Pico for a 3-day, 70-mile attempt at circumnavigating
the island by bicycle. It should be a great adventure! Once we
get started again, we should arrive in Kinsale, Ireland, around
August 11."

Women always need new clothes when going to Europe. Amanda picked
out this nifty little mola item while passing through the - where
else? - San Blas Islands.Photo Courtesy Mahina Tiare

Kind of Looks Like the Titanic

July 24 - San Francisco Bay

Photo Don Parker

"I took this with my phone on Sunday
from my Gemini 105Mc cat Double Play," writes Don
Parker. "It is south of the Bay Bridge and halfway across
the Bay from The Ramp restaurant in San Francisco's China Basin.
The water is about 50 feet deep."